By Dschabner

Dec 14, 2008 8:34pm

On the Same Block as PEBO, Blago Plots His Next Move

ABC News’ Matt Jaffe reports from Chicago: Directly across the street from where President-elect Barack Obama has been planning his future administration, Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich is planning his response to charges that he tried to sell Obama’s former Senate seat.

For the second day in a row, Blagojevich Sunday spent hours at the downtown Chicago building where the law offices of attorney Ed Genson are based, just a stone’s throw from Obama’s transition headquarters.

Blagojevich arrived early in the afternoon, with his wife showing up around 3 p.m. local time.

Three hours later, Blagojevich left using a back exit. Moments afterwards, Genson departed through the front doorway.

Initially, Genson said "no comment" numerous times as reporters asked him if he had been retained by the governor, but when pressed, he eventually responded to the question.

"I have to check some conflicts, but as of now I believe I’ll be retained. … I have to check for conflicts, that’s all."

Genson then got into a waiting SUV.

"Conflicts. C-O-N-F-L-I-C-T-S," he spelled out for reporters, shutting the door before the car drove off.

Genson has a history of taking on cases with high-profile clients, including R & B singer R. Kelly and newspaper magnate Conrad Black.

On Saturday, Genson told ABC News that he had met with the governor and will make a decision by Monday afternoon about taking on the job.

- Matt Jaffe

User Comments

ah shucks, the lawyer for r. kelley,
well the badgovbit will go scott free.
this guy is good.

Posted by: bush the usa | December 14, 2008, 8:45 pm 8:45 pm

It will be a sad day when Obama is sworn in and then led away in handcuffs. Rahm emmanuel in hiding and not talking…Ayers, Rezko..Blago about to spill their guts on Obama

Posted by: obusha 09 | December 14, 2008, 9:24 pm 9:24 pm

Why are people so quick to accused Rahm Emmanuel?
If he alerted the Feds, everybody should be happy!!!
No one knows, what went down!!!
People need to stop judging and wait until the facts come out!!!
Anybody want popcorn or cotton candy!!!

Posted by: sisterdearest09 | December 14, 2008, 9:31 pm 9:31 pm

no the sad day will be when obama or any other politician is lead away in handcuffs for any other crime
and bush continues to be free
on charges of war crimes.
until the issues of bush and the war crimes is straight
the justice system will contiue to be a sham
sound the charge for bush war criminal

Posted by: bush the usa | December 14, 2008, 9:33 pm 9:33 pm

no it will be a sad day when obama or any other politician is lead away in handcuffs for any crime and bush the war criminal continues to be free.
until bush the war criminal is brought to justice.
the american justice system will continue to be just a sham.
bush the war criminal.
needs to be brought to justice.
until that happens it will continue to be a sad day indeed.

Posted by: bush the usa | December 14, 2008, 9:36 pm 9:36 pm

Blago don’t have NOTHING on President-elect Obama!!!
It’s my understanding behind closed doors they did not like each other!!!

Posted by: sisterdearest09 | December 14, 2008, 9:36 pm 9:36 pm

obusha 09:
Little B.O. Peep may be losing some
sheep.

Posted by: CandyKane | December 14, 2008, 9:41 pm 9:41 pm

and little georgie bush
should be doing some time
for war crimes

Posted by: bush the usa | December 14, 2008, 9:49 pm 9:49 pm

concerned in ohio,
sweet justice?
there will be no justice, sweet or any other kind until george bush is brought up for war crimes.
until then, any kind of justice you all call for-for any other politician will be a sham.
bush for war crimes.
now that is sweet justice

Posted by: bush the usa | December 14, 2008, 9:51 pm 9:51 pm

blog jeopardy
answer: two
question: how many shoes does it take to make a lame duck, duck?
what kind of secret service has bush got now?
how did that second shoe get past him?

Posted by: oh no | December 14, 2008, 10:03 pm 10:03 pm

bertieW
article 147 of the fourth geneva convention says you are wrong on that.
go read it and then comeback and tell me
bush is not a war criminal.
just because you folks are so biased,and want to be blinded by the truth (which is part of the reason we had bush for eight years anyway)
does not change the fact.
bertieW, and I just read concerned in ohio said bush was a class act.
well, for me, i will never respond to anything else crazy concerned in ohio says.
because concerned in ohio (outside of the bush family) is one of the few who think bush is a class act.
being the leader of a country, having someone at that close range, throwing shoes at you, and you wave the secret service off, is not a class act.
it was fool hardy. and the secret service should have done their job. and not listen to dubya, the lame duck.
i’ll just bet someone on that detail, had his butt chewed by a superior in the secret service.
bertieW
check out the geneva convention.
any crime you can wish on obama or any of his team pale to the crimes of bush.

Posted by: bush the usa | December 14, 2008, 10:26 pm 10:26 pm

oh i forgot,
cheney said we did not need to go by the geneva convention, right? right

Posted by: bush the usa | December 14, 2008, 10:27 pm 10:27 pm

Bush the usa…
“Bush’s crimes exist only in your BDS-riddled head”
Concerned in OH took the words right out of my mouth. You deserved that!

Posted by: cpad | December 14, 2008, 10:29 pm 10:29 pm

Blago has been under investigation for 3 years now and although Fitzgerald may have jumped the gun on making the scandle public, thus may not actually be able to charge him for with the senate seat bribe. But, as Fitzgerald said, he needed to stop Blago before he did.
My goodness, this guy is a crook and I’m sure Fitzgerald must have lots of other goodies in his bag to charge him (and others too). Obama has been playing the “Pay for Play” game for years according to an abundance of news articles by the Chicago Tribune and other Chicago papers.
Thank you Fizgerald for fighting the good fight!

Posted by: cpad | December 14, 2008, 10:56 pm 10:56 pm

There’s this undesignated building connected to Obama across from the office of a lawyer who might be retained for Blagovedich. To add further to the speculation, Obama supposedly planned for his future administration from this mentioned building. Can’t say I’m really intrigued and inclined to speculate further. Yawn.

Posted by: kat | December 15, 2008, 12:01 am 12:01 am

Speaking of shoes…even though I wear size 12, I can’t shake the fact that more right-wing thugs haven’t been hit by flying shoes. Really, what’s the world coming to…

Posted by: Slim Shady | December 15, 2008, 12:18 am 12:18 am

Washington state: the state supreme court has set a hearing date en banc for Jan 8th, for the case of Broe v. Reed, 12 voters suing the SOS for not confirming Obama’s eligibility. this is the first case of it’s kind that has not been denied. Obama will be forced to show his proof of citizenship.
thank God it is before swearing in.
If you still falsely think he is a natural born citizen, then why in the world would he have let such cases get so far?
Just wait and see.
LOL!

Posted by: commondecency | December 15, 2008, 1:08 am 1:08 am

Concerned in Ohio
re: ” Is that why these people deliberately target civilians?”
I am sure that there are many civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan that wonder the same thing about Americans.
with your type of reasoning, you justify every genocide, purge and slaughter throughout history….

Posted by: Blue | December 15, 2008, 1:16 am 1:16 am

commondecency
you forgot to mention why they have ‘standing’, and their ‘burden of proof’ is still the same as all the other cases.
“these plaintiffs have standing under a
unique Washington statute that:
allows any registered voter to challenge the election of someone who, at the time of the
election, was ineligible to hold the office.”

Posted by: Blue | December 15, 2008, 1:24 am 1:24 am

Matt Jaffe,
what does the location have to do with anything?
commondecency,
‘LOL’?? are you sure you are using it in the right way? Nothing funny about wasting taxpayer money.
Concerned in OH,
OH, u again.

Posted by: Question | December 15, 2008, 1:46 am 1:46 am

Obamacrat for Palin,
Nice to meet you and I used to be a Palin supporter. But i really didn’t like the dream i had about her failed presidency, y’know? It was really a horrible, horrible experience, wouldn’t wish it on my enemy. so I had to switch sides, sadly.
So, do tell us more about the Obama Presidency, would you? what was it like? I seemed to have slept through it and don’t recall it ever starting. fill me in. I want all the details on all things that happened through the four years of his presidency, ok?

Posted by: Question | December 15, 2008, 1:57 am 1:57 am

Concerned in OH
re:
“Right. That’s your problem. You believe that American Soldiers are literally equivalent to terrorists.”
- your problem is that you project your view on other people’s comments….
- your other problem is that you are unable to imagine that there are innocent civilians being killed accidentally by coalition military forces, [BTW: well documented in the news].
- I said nothing about equating American forces with terrorists, what I said was that civilians killed by American or ‘coalition’ forces would naturally view those who killed their family members with understandable hate and could view them as terrorists. By your own definition: anyone who ‘targets civilians’.
Does it really matter once their family members are dead who killed them? Are you implying that ‘they’ think:.. ‘thank you, coalition forces for killing my children, I know you represent president Bush so I won’t hate you for killing them’? I will only hate the ‘beheaders.’

Posted by: Blue | December 15, 2008, 3:42 am 3:42 am

There is now a report on WSJ that the Tribune moved earlier than prosecutors wanted and forced their hand.
I think I smell Rahm leaking so to save other candidates before Fitz could net 4 or 5. Now that would be embarrassing!

Posted by: BertieW | December 15, 2008, 3:47 am 3:47 am

Republicans are economic terrorists.
Employment was booming. What did the republicans do? They outsourced our jobs and expanded the H1B visa program so more Americans could get laid off and so that foreigners could work in the U.S. for cheaper pay.
People were buying houses. What did the republicans do? They expanded their outsourcing/insourcing efforts so that Americans could not afford mortgages.
Americans were investing and saving for retirement. What did the Republicans do? They crashed the stock market and eroded confidence of both foreign and domestic investors.
Americans were buying cars. What did the Republicans do? They let the big 3 go under just in time for Christmas in an attempt to bring down the unions.

Posted by: Lights On | December 15, 2008, 6:05 am 6:05 am

Further proof that Blago and PEBO are in cahoots! Maybe they’ve been horse trading via a secret passage way between the buildings. Perhaps they’ve been standing in the windows waving semaphores at one another or sending Morse Code via the venetian blinds!
Don’t be surprised if Blago ends being named Ambassador to San Marino!

Posted by: Brooklyn Democrat | December 15, 2008, 6:31 am 6:31 am

Would “Concerned in OH” please eliminate “OH” from your signature line. You are a “concern” to people in OH just as the people in TX do not want to be associated with Bushby.

Posted by: Yankee | December 15, 2008, 6:35 am 6:35 am

GP -
Berg also wanted to arrest Bush and Cheney for perpetrating 9/11. This guy is a member in good standing of the Tin Foil Hat Brigade.

Posted by: Brooklyn Democrat | December 15, 2008, 6:40 am 6:40 am

Hang on, Rod! The Governorship is your best leverage! Cut a deal and sing like the Mormon Tabernacle Choir!

Posted by: Mesquito | December 15, 2008, 7:53 am 7:53 am

It is perfectly legal, logical and reasonable for a Pres. Elect to present a list of people he would consider as good, qualified contenders for the Senate seat he is vacating. This is likely what Emanuel did. Once whack-job Blago figured out there was nothing being offered except “gratitude,” he went on his F-bomb tirade. Obama is in the clear, as is Emanuel.

Posted by: William J. LePetomane | December 15, 2008, 11:32 am 11:32 am

It seems to me perfectly logical that the president elect or may his staff may have spoke with the gov. about people he thought he should replace him, so the question is why did barack originally deny having even suggested anything to the gov about replacing him. Even if President elect’s cheif of staff spoke to the gov certianly it was with Barack’s approval and knowledge.

Posted by: rachel | December 15, 2008, 11:57 am 11:57 am

Concerned in OH
- obviously you are unable to accept the point that there are others who live on this planet besides Americans,… you seem to have adopted the Republican view of ‘if you don’t agree with me, your a terrorist’…… that view has been proven false over the last 8 years, but it is revealing however that you, like the bush administration continue to use that canard.
- as for your calling people liars:
You and the republicans have no room on that subject as just about everything that has been said by ‘W’ and Co. in the last 8 years plainly speaks for itself on the negative side.
re: ‘apologize’
as it seems my last post was edited out for some inexplicable reason….. let me repeat:
I will apologize for my comments right after
Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Wolfewitz et. al apologize for starting a needless war.

Posted by: Blue | December 15, 2008, 1:07 pm 1:07 pm

No reason for Blago to resign.
The Feds have no case. There’s
nothing in the Feds’ complaint
that is any more than normal
political horesetrading talk
by the governor with his advisors.

Posted by: anon | December 15, 2008, 2:00 pm 2:00 pm

“You’re a bigger liar than 0bama.”
Someone who put Ashley Todd on his shoulders and ran with it long after it was proven a hoax is calling someone else a liar?
ROFLMAO!

Posted by: Ryan C | December 15, 2008, 2:44 pm 2:44 pm

“Why you have sympathy for people who behead women and children is beyond me.”
One would take your advocacy for these women and children more seriously if you did not enjoy torturing their husbands and brothers so much.

Posted by: Ryan C | December 15, 2008, 2:46 pm 2:46 pm

“Hate to tell you sweetie, but the first in a LONG line of the lawsuits was brought by a LIFELONG DEMOCRAT. Berg, an attorney, is not ONLY a LIFELONG DEMOCRAT, but a Hillary supporter. So YOU get over it!”
Any who told you Berg was a Hillary supporter and lifelong Democrat?
Oh yeah Berg did.
The same guy told gullible right wingers that Obama had been subpoenaed. Same guy who told them that Obama had been ordered to produce his birth certificate. Same guy who has lied about his case a half dozen times.

Posted by: Ryan C | December 15, 2008, 2:49 pm 2:49 pm

“Like him, you should immediately apologize to our soldiers and immediately resign (from this board).”
Until you do Blue, Concerned in OH is going to carve a B in his left cheek and blame a black man for it!

Posted by: Ryan C | December 15, 2008, 2:50 pm 2:50 pm

not really-Concerned in Ohio
re: ‘You said our American Soldiers were terrorists”
obviously at this point it is clear you either are unable to understand the context of postings or you are simply confused or dense.

Posted by: Blue | December 16, 2008, 2:52 am 2:52 am

Do we really need to resort to ideology bashing? Yes, the libs might be bull-headed, pushy, and quick to point a finger, but at least they’re not ignorant bigots.
Anyway, can’t you see what Concerned is actually trying to say? Our troops are not terrorists! They are brave men who protect our country. Unfortunately, they take orders from a ruthless imperialist dictator-want-to-be. (Can someone PLEASE remind me why we have no rights to privacy anymore??) Not to mention the whole war crimes/Guantanamo Bay/endless list. But can’t you be just a little empathetic for pete’s sake–if you were one of those people “in blankets, wearing towels on their heads”, not all of them are evil. You can’t hate people just for believing something different, otherwise you might as well be yelling “Nuke ‘em all!” And some of those innocent civilians get killed. Think of they’re families: We have violated the borders of their country, utterly disrespected their religions, and in effect, have conquered their people, and now have killed their innocent husband/wife/children/whatever. I’d be pretty angry if that happened to me! And don’t any of you dare say that they deserved it, because many of them did not.
Our soldiers are not terrorists, they’re just good at following orders.
(Hm, doesn’t that sound a bit familiar?)
Anyway, Obama didn’t do anything wrong. Pull your heads out of the clouds and give up the conspiracies.
Blago will be tried in court, and if you don’t believe in our country’s government (including courts), than I guess you can “love it or leave it”.

Posted by: deal with it | December 16, 2008, 2:30 pm 2:30 pm

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